The present invention generally relates to data communications and information systems and, more particularly, to advance notification systems and methods for notifying users in advance of the impending arrival of a vehicle or user, for example but not limited to, a bus, train, delivery van, plane, fishing vessel, or other vessel at a particular vehicle stop.
There are many situations when it is desirable for people to know of the approximate arrival time of a particular transportation vehicle shortly before the vehicle is to arrive at a particular destination. For example, a person having to pick up a friend or relative at a commercial bus station either has to call the bus station to find out the approximate arrival time (information which is oftentimes unavailable) or plan on arriving at the bus station prior to the scheduled arrival time of the bus and hope the bus is not delayed.
Another example is in the commercial fishing industry, wherein fish markets, restaurants, and other establishments desire to purchase fish immediately upon arrival of a commercial fishing boat at a port. Currently, such establishments, in order to ensure being able to purchase the freshest catch often depend on predetermined schedules of fishing fleets, which are not always accurate or reliable.
Still another example involves school children that ride school buses. School children who ride buses to school often have to wait at their bus stops for extended lengths of time because school buses arrive at particular bus stops at substantially different times from one day to the next. The reason is that school buses are not always the best-maintained vehicles on the roads, frequently operate during rush hour traffic, and must contend with congested urban/suburban conditions. As a result, school children are forced to wait at their bus stops for long periods of time, oftentimes in adverse weather conditions, on unlit street corners, or in hazardous conditions near busy or secluded streets. If it is raining, snowing, windy and cold, and/or even dark, such conditions can be unhealthy and unsafe for children.
Thus, generally, it would be desirable for a user to know when a vehicle (such as a bus, truck, train, plane, or the like) is (a) a particular time period (for example, number of minutes or seconds) away from arriving at a destination, (b) a particular distance (for example, number of miles or height) away from the destination, or (c) at a particular location among a set of location points, so that the user can adjust his/her schedule and avoid arriving too early or too late.
In the past, in order to combat the arrival time problem in the context of school buses, student notification systems have been employed that use a transmitter on each bus and a receiver inside each student home. U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,661 to Boone et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,350,969 describe systems of this type. When the school bus and its on-board transmitter come within range of a particular home receiver, the transmitter sends a signal to notify the student that his/her school bus is nearby. While such notification systems work satisfactorily under certain circumstances, nevertheless, these systems are limited by the range of the transmitters and require the purchase of relatively expensive receivers for each student. In addition, such systems provide little flexibility for providing additional information to the students, such as notifying them of the delayed arrival of a bus, alternative bus route information, or information regarding important school events.
An object of the present invention is to overcome the deficiencies and inadequacies of the prior art as noted above and as generally known in the industry.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an advance notification system and method for according advance notification of the impending arrival of a vehicle at a particular vehicle stop.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an advance notification system and method for according advance notification to school students of the impending arrival of a school bus at a particular vehicle stop.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an advance notification system and method for inexpensively according advance notification of the impending arrival of a vehicle at a particular vehicle stop.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an advance notification system that is reliable in operation and flexible in design to permit customization to a particular application.
Briefly described, the present invention is an advance notification system for notifying passengers of an impending arrival of a vehicle as the vehicle progresses along a scheduled route with particular stop locations and corresponding scheduled times of arrival at the stop locations. The advance notification system generally comprises a vehicle control unit (VCU) disposed on each vehicle and a base station control unit (BSCU) which is configured to communicate with all of the vehicle control units and with passenger telephones.
The VCU includes a vehicle control mechanism, a vehicle communication mechanism controlled by the vehicle control mechanism, a vehicle clock for tracking elapsed time of the vehicle while on the scheduled route to determine when the vehicle is early, late, and on time along the scheduled route, optional input switches (e.g., start/reset, advance stop number, move stop number back) that can be operated by the vehicle driver to indicate when the vehicle has reached particular stops along the route, and optional sensors (e.g., positioning system input, etc.) for signaling to the vehicle control mechanism when the vehicle is early, late, and on time along the scheduled route. The control mechanism is adapted to initiate calls utilizing the vehicle communication mechanism when the elapsed time and/or traveled distance of the vehicle at any of the particular positions is either ahead or behind the scheduled time and/or distance. In the preferred embodiment, the vehicle communication mechanism is a wireless communication interface, such as a mobile telephone, radio frequency (RF) transceiver, or other suitable device.
The BSCU has a base station communication mechanism and a base station control mechanism for controlling the base station communication mechanism. The base station communication mechanism receives the call from the VCU and receives the amount of time and/or distance in which the vehicle is ahead or behind relative to the schedule. The base station control mechanism causes calls to be made to each of the passengers to be boarded at a particular stop location via the base station communication mechanism prior to the arrival of the vehicle at the particular stop location. In the preferred embodiment, the base station communication mechanism is a wireless communication device, such as a mobile telephone or RF transceiver (includes both transmitter and receiver), for communicating with the vehicle communication mechanism and also comprises at least one telephone for calling passenger telephones.
In accordance with a significant feature of the present invention, the telephone call to advise a passenger of the impending arrival of the vehicle preferably can exhibit a distinctive telephone ring sound so that the call recipient need not answer the telephone in order to receive the message. Moreover, the distinctive telephone ring sound can be coded by any sequence and duration of rings and/or silent periods.
It should be emphasized that while the present invention is particularly suited for application to school buses, there are many other applications. As examples, the advance notification system and method of the present invention could be employed with commercial buses, trains, planes, pickup vehicles, delivery vehicles, fishing vessels, and numerous other transportation vehicles.